Bias Awareness Week kicks off today with campus activities and discussions throughout the week.
The week-long activities are hosted by the Bias Response Team, an on-campus group stemming from the Office of Student Life that combats bias and hate.
When there has been an incident of bias, students are encouraged and faculty and staff members are required to report it to the Bias Response Team, which in turn responds to the situation to help give victims of bias a place to have their voice heard and to be respected. Reports can be submitted anonymously.
The group also strives to connect with other groups on campus to promote its slogan “Make a difference, challenge hate.”
“We work closely with departments, organizations and students to help create a culture of inclusion and respect on our campus,” said Lindsey Adkisson, graduate teaching fellow assistant at the Bias Response Team. “In addition to case management, a core component of the work we do is preventive education and outreach, such as Bias Awareness Week.”
Starting today there will be Positive Graffiti in the Living Learning Center, and then a showing of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, in the Wesley Center across from Lillis Business Complex.
The Bias Response Team works with its partner organizations and departments, which decide how they are going to become involved.
This year, the Bias Response Team is partnering with ASUO, University Housing, Black Student Union, Count Me In Action Team, Breaking Bigotry coalition and the University Counseling Center.
During Bias Awareness Week 2010, there will be activities, discussions, workshops, lectures and performances. There will also be a Bias Response Team table in the EMU Amphitheater today through Friday.
“Tabling is very important for several reasons,” Bias Response Team student intern Kylie Kubitz said. “There are a bunch of other student groups (in the EMU Amphitheater). It’s important for this to happen because it helps build a coalition for bias awareness.”
Like any campus organization, the Bias Response Team has goals that it wishes to address.
“A primary goal of the BRT is to continue to figure out new ways to get more voices at the table,” Adkisson said, whose duties with the Bias Response Team includes administrative and community outreach. “We are always looking for ways to engage members of our community that aren’t always involved. I’d say getting more perspective and increasing our reach is always a central part of the planning of Bias Awareness Week.”
While students have rallied in response to recent controversies, particularly a swastika found in the LGBTQA office, the members behind Bias Awareness Week are not settling on a theme or issue.
“We’re definitely not focusing on one particular issue (about bias or hate),” Kubitz said.
“Rather, we’re focusing on inclusion of all groups.”
This year, members of the group hope that student and faculty participants alike will take away positive messages from the lessons of Bias Awareness Week.
“I just want people to be aware of their day-to-day actions and thoughts and how they affect other people,” Kubitz said.
“Bias Awareness Week is a University-wide, collaborative effort with a message that resonates with every department, organization and classroom,” Adkisson said. “It’s our chance to pull together, speak out and say that we will not tolerate a culture of hate in our community (and on) our campus.”
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